To tell the unconventional truth, respecting no one who does not respect Cuba or the Cuban people's right to freedom.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Mr. Prieto Goes to Washington (Part II)

Val Prieto has been "honored and humbled" again by "a possible official trip to Washington DC" ["Back to DC," Dec. 5]. What interest is lost by that "possible" is supplied again by that intriguing "official." I thought only heads of state made "official trips" to other countries. Unless the Villa Valentina, Val's storied bailiwick, has declared its independence, Val is travelling to the nation's capitol in an unofficial capacity to meet with officialdom.

Although Val says he is not free at present to reveal the details, we are certainly not constrained from speculating on the nature of his trip. I think we can presume that he has not received an invitation to Barack Obama's inauguration, though from the beating that John McCain took on his blog for more than a year, he certainly earned one. No, I am sure that it is Bush, not Obama, who has invited Val to attend a final Bush bash at the White House.

Let us hope that it is not what I think it is, for the sake of decorum at least, not because the parties involved are beneath such conduct but precisely because they are not. I mean that Bush may be intending to mark the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution with some kind of commemoration of the "betrayed Revolution."

There were plenty of traitors in the Cuban Revolution, to be sure, but they betrayed God and Country, not their Communist tenets and beliefs. The biggest traitor of all, of course, was the United States itself, which delivered Cuba to Castro and has maintained him in power for 50 years.

Is that what President Bush proposes to celebrate? He himself is responsible for keeping Cuba in bondage for 8 of those years. If he invites all living presidents (Carter, Bush and Clinton), together they will account for 24 years of Cuban oppression. If Obama is invited that would mean 200 years of oppression.

It's "incredibly important" to Val that he should be there, hobnobbing with the architects of Cuba's destruction and especially with the idol of his devotion George W. Bush. Val is "astounded," "amazed" and "honored to have been considered for participation." He respectfully requests a "few bucks" to defray the cost of his sojourn to Washington and promises to do his best to "represent you, Cuba and her people."

Well. Really, what can we say? That the next four years will cure Val of his delusions of grandeur? We hope so.

POSTSCRIPT:

In today's [Dec. 6] edition of Babalú there is a post by Alberto de la Cruz entitled "We Talk, You Listen and Send Money." When I saw it, I thought it was another appeal for donations to underwrite Val's state visit to Washington. But actually the words are attributed to the Castro regime.

Tellechea we prefer to keep ourselves attentive to any transgression against the Cuban people and usually refrain from commenting on less than serious posts, but this thread is without a doubt a double edged sword, amazingly illustrative of the capability of men such as Prieto to blind themselves to the evident and concurrently a great laugh about such...... shall we say......idiocy?

We are convinced that we need not remind you of the Cuban adage that applies to the easily gullible like Prieto, handily impressed by facades instead of substance. Some people sell themselves and their countrymen very cheaply.

The most interesting part, besides the pretense of his "representing" of Cuba and Cubans is the distinct posibility that he has been invited to work with the transition team handling the Cuban affairs from Bush to Obama. Obama will keep the policies against the Cuban refugees which that Mr Prieto seems to defend so vehemently at his website. As they say here in Miami, that visit surely has to do with the phone call that Mrs. Ros Lehtinen received from Obama. Someone must call 305-220-3281 to find out.

It seems that the Miami Herald has been put up for sale. The McClatchy Co. has lost its appetite for the Herald's continued decline into obscurity and irrelevance. Once a respected publication, the Herald, along with the rest of the left-leaning papers in this country, has become a joke that long since ceased to be humorous.

One can only hope that whoever purchases the paper (if they can find anyone willing to buy a sinking ship), will try to reverse the racist and biased course the publication chose to take a long time ago and are not afraid of Chihuahuas nipping at their heels.

I will answer this as a constitutional question since it would have no validity otherwise.

Val is a native-born Cuban. However, he (as so many others) renounced his Cuban citizenship when he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen. The 1940 Constitution, which will be enforced when Cuba is again a democracy, does not recognize dual citizenship and denaturalizes Cubans who adopt another. Val is, therefore, disqualified to occupy the presidency of the Republic of Cuba, unless a future constitutional amendment restores his citizenship (as seems probable since a lot of exiles are in his position).

On the other hand, Henry, who was born in the U.S., can claim Cuban citizenship under the Constitution as the son of Cuban nationals, and can run for president of Cuba if he first renounces his U.S. citizenship.

On the other hand, Henry, who was born in the U.S., can claim Cuban citizenship under the Constitution as the son of Cuban nationals, and can run for president of Cuba if he first renounces his U.S. citizenship.

Now, of course, comes the pat I hate: if ever there was a time to drop a few bucks in the Babalu piggy bank, it's now. I know times are tight and Christmas is just around the corner, but if you can, please consider making a small donation by clicking on the donation button on the sidebar, to help me offset the cost of this trip. I promise to do my very best to represent you, Cuba and her people.

Bush has set the republican party back 20 years. So goes the republican party, so goes the cuban exiles. Just like every other nation in the world, bush, and ultimately the cuban exile has driven this nation hard left. Thank you, i appreciate it.

www.fighting-dems.com<----------brought to you by good folks like the right wing reactionary cuban exiles and their associates.

Cite: www.wjs.com aka wall street journal

May 11, 2006, 9:12 pmBush Dips Into the 20sPresident Bush’s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an “excellent or pretty good” job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January. Approval ratings for Congress overall also sank, and now stand at 18%.

Roughly one-quarter of U.S. adults say “things in the country are going in the right direction,” while 69% say “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.” This has been the trend since January, when 33% said the nation was heading in the right direction. Iraq remains a key concern for the general public, as 28% of Americans said they consider Iraq to be one of the top two most important issues the government should address, up from 23% in April. The immigration debate also prompted 16% of Americans to consider it a top issue, down from 19% last month, but still sharply higher from 4% in March.

The Harris poll comes two days after a downbeat assessement of Bush in a New York Times/CBS News poll. The Times, in analyzing the results, said “Americans have a bleaker view of the country’s direction than at any time in more than two decades.”

Oh brother, here we go AGAIN. What can be said now that has not yet been said about this topic?

For starter and for the record, I will reiterate, for the twentieth time now, my position concerning Babalublog and its contributors, I don't always agree with some of them and that's fine, a number of them are good people who in my opinion do not represent or share a preference for the "Pressure Cooker" policy that Val espouses, they are easy to identify for they have never expressed any opinion(s) that would indicate them as such, at least four names come to mind but I will not mention them here, these are people whom I respect and even admire so I shall refrain from putting them on the spot.

Having said that, it troubles me that after such a long time and with so much evidence available to form educated opinions, people like Val do not yet discern what is so obvious to so many, not just to those who accuse and besmirch the likes of Val due to personal and ideological issues, but to people such as me, who do not have a personal of ideological axe to grind with the likes of Val, I guess sometimes there is no worse blind man than he who wishes not to see, as the Cuban saying so famously says, and it is a darn shame, unless Val has access to classified information that we don't . My 2¢.

An alcoholic cannot hold anything inside, Angel, let alone classified information. This is just a sample of how uninformed, misled, out of tune with reality, are the officials who define the policies in regard to Cuba. Remember that his "in Cuba there's nothing to by there's no need for money" qoute got far with the politicians in Washington. The "experts" rely on someone who claims that he "speak for the community" and "represent you, Cuba, and her inhabitants", disregarding the fact that no one has elected this individual to be not even his Kendall 'hood's dogcatcher, task in which he would miserably fail, too. Last thing we need is the man begging us readers for money to buy a dog catching net and other supplies of that thankless trade.